Yes, I know this may be a situational question. I ask it because of I am coming to the end of a series of trainings (Instructor Led Micro-Learning sessions) I developed and delivered. As I continue to review the assessment of knowledge transfer, I expect some hits and some misses. In this case I can point to a few things, I would have done better (with better results) had I been more in touch with these trainees right from the onset even though I came in with some background knowledge and did a lot of appropriate needs analysis.

An old co-worker told me, I should have gone and actually worked their job for a few days and I would have gotten the understanding of their culture much faster. In this case I am not sure that is true. If for instance you are training a Janitorial staff on OSHA compliance, do you have to do their job to create and engaging, appropriate, and effective training? If you are training a CEO, on Email etiquette, do you similarly need to do their job?